Programme notes | Valentine's concert: Lahav & Chen

Programme Notes

Valentine’s Concert Wed 14 February 2024 • 20.15

PROGRAMME soprano Chen Reiss clarinet Julien Hervé piano Lahav Shani Robert Schumann (1810–1856) Phantasiestücke op. 73 for clarinet and piano (1849) • Zart und mit Ausdruck • Lebhaft, leicht • Rasch und mit Feuer Robert Schumann From: Myrthen, op. 25 (1840) • Der Nussbaum • Die Lotosblume • Lied der Suleika • Hochländisches Wiegenlied • Widmung Louis Spohr (1784–1859) From: Sechs deutsche Lieder, op. 103 (1837) • Zwiegesang • Wiegenlied (in drei Tönen) • Das Heimliche Lied intermission Paul Ben-Haim (1897–1984) Three Songs Without Words (1952) • Arioso • Ballad • Sephardic Melody Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) From: Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Das Himmlische Leben (1892) Arranged for soprano, clarinet and piano by Lahav Shani Franz Schubert (1897–1828) Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D965 (1828) Concert ends at around 22.00

Robert and Clara Schumann-Wieck. Litho by Eduard Kaiser, 1847

Photo: Lilac. Photo Annie Spratt (Unsplash)

Love songs There is no lovelier idea to express in song than love in all its forms.

Forbidden love, the first sparks of love, bursts of passion, or unrequited love: all aspects of love appear in this Valentine’s Day recital.

Fantasiestücke and Myrthen

Everything pointed to the young Robert Schumann becoming one of the greatest piano virtuosos of his age. In any event, his teacher Friedrich Wieck was convinced of it. But events took a different turn: an injury to his hand ended such a prospect. This was not the end of the world for Schumann. He dedicated himself to composing and not long thereafter met the love of his life. Wieck, however, faced the bigger disappointment.

His dream of having taught a star pianist came crashing down. Worse still: the love of his unfortunate student’s life turned out to be Wieck’s own daughter Clara.

With a little imagination – something that the very title of the piece encourages - you can interpret Schumann’s Fantasiestücke as a three-part remembrance of that blossoming love. The first part is dreamlike and tender, the second conveys elation and zest for life, whilst the mood of the third is passionate and manic. It represented love as a primal, unstoppable force; something that Wieck had

already feared. He was dead set against any engagement, but this didn’t stand in the way of the amorous couple.

In 1840 Robert and Clara were married. As his wedding gift to his bride, Schumann presented her with his song cycle Myrthen.

In ‘Der Nussbaum’ a girl dreams of a love that she dare not admit to herself. ‘Die Lotosblume’ tells of the shy love of a lotus flower for the moon: under its light it wakens, blossoms, and spreads its fragrance. ‘Lied der Suleika’ expresses the feeling of recognising oneself in the lines of a love poem: sweet honesty clad in poetry. In ‘Hochländisches Wiegenlied’ a mother sings to her son a wish that he should grow into a strong, rebellious man. ‘Widmung’ expresses in words and music the overwhelming sense that your love means the world to you. This song is the opening piece in Schumann’s song cycle; but here, it ends this recital as an allencompassing conclusion.

Deutsche Lieder

At the time when Schumann was starting out on his career as a composer, Louis Spohr was one of Germany’s foremost composers.

His Sechs deutsche Lieder, written at the height of his fame, he dedicated to Princess Sondershausen. From Spohr’s autobiography we learn that the princess presented him in gratitude with a precious ring – a nice detail for this Valentine’s Day programme.

‘Zwiegesang’ paints a picture of a romantic

night in May. A bird is perched in the lilac, beneath which sits a girl. They take turns to sing – one sings of springtime, the other of love. Springtime is also the subject of ‘Wiegenlied’, in which a mother sings her baby to sleep: if the child closes its eyes now, tomorrow they will open like blossom. There is a melancholic tone to ‘Das heimliche Lied’, which tells of sorrow borne in secret. And then, at the end of the song, the sun breaks through. Peace and quiet are balm for a tormented soul; love will fill the hearts of those ready to receive it.

The princess presented him with a precious ring – a nice detail for this Valentine’s Concert

‘Das himmlische Leben’, a work that was ultimately not included in the Wunderhorn song cycle. Instead, Mahler used the song as the final movement of his Fourth Symphony.

Here, Lahav Shani has re-scored the work for soprano, clarinet and piano. This song tells of life in heaven as imagined by a child. In heaven, it is always and everywhere joyful. All the saints laugh and dance. The wine flows in abundance. Angels bake bread, and there is plentiful and delicious food to eat. But most wonderful of all as we are assured at the end of the piece, is the heavenly music: no earthly sounds can compete.

Der Hirt auf dem Felsen

Paul Ben-Haim - born Paul Frankenburger took a new name when in 1933 he emigrated from Nazi Germany to Tel Aviv. His three Songs Without Words he described as a ‘tone picture of an oriental mood’. As further explanation: ‘Whoever’s imagination needs additional prompting may think that the long-breathed melodies of the Arioso were inspired by the mood of a summer day’s pitiless heat in the bare Judean Hills’. In ‘Ballad’ one hears ‘the monotonous babbling of an oriental storyteller’. His last song is based on a traditional folk tune of SephardicJewish origin – ‘a veritable pearl which I have only given a setting’.

Here also in ‘Der Hirt auf dem Felsen’ we gaze upwards. At the start of the song we find ourselves in the mountains, high above earthly life. There is a shepherd singing, and from the valley below comes the echo of his own voice. He feels lonely; his beloved is far away and unreachable. After the first four stanzas, he is struck by melancholy. His loneliness is unbearable, death is a tempting prospect. The shepherd feels his heart being pulled towards heaven. And then the music brightens once more. The last stanza envisages how with the coming of spring, joy will return. Finally, Schubert returns to the verse lines from the opening of the song, capturing the shepherd’s voice and its echo, with a clarinet dancing towards the end. All’s well that ends well. Schubert himself would see no new springtimes: he died within a few weeks of completion of this song. But to his shepherd in the mountains he had bestowed eternal life.

Das himmlische Leben

Bart Diels

Songs Without Words

In the 1890s Gustav Mahler worked on a song cycle based on folk poems from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. From these he created

Chen Reiss • soprano Artist in Residence

Photo: Paul Marc Mitchell

Born: Herzliya, Israel Education: piano from age five, first singing lessons at fourteen Debut: member of the ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera Solo appearances: Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris Recitals: with pianists Charles Spencer and Alexander Schmalcz Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 2023

Julien Hervé • clarinet Born: Aubergenville, France Education: Clarinet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, Paris Current position: principal clarinet Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2008) Chamber music: Member of Het Collectief and Ensemble Calliopée, recitals with Jean Hisanori Sugitani, artistic director Rotterdam Chamber Music Society and Festival International de Musique de Chambre de Thèze

Photo: Oscar Seijkens

Lahav Shani • piano Born: Tel Aviv, Israel Education: piano at the BuchmannMehta School of Music Tel Aviv; piano and conducting at the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin; mentor: Daniel Barenboim Breakthrough: 2007, as soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 Subsequently: Solo-appearances with Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta and Gianandrea Noseda, chamber music in Verbier, Aix-enProvence and Berlin Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 2016 Photo: Marco Borggreve

Agenda Fri 16 February 2024 • 20.15 conductor Lahav Shani soprano Chen Reiss Strauss Six orchestral songs Mahler Symphony No. 6 ‘Tragic‘ Music for Breakfast No. 3 Sun 25 February 2024 • 10.30 with Quirine Scheffers (violin), David Fernández Alonso (horn) and colleagues from the orchestra Saint-Saëns Romance for horn and piano Koechlin Quatre petites pièces for horn, violin and piano Debussy Violin Sonata Dauprat Horn Quintet in F Major Thu 21 March 2024 • 20.15 Fri 22 March 2024 • 20.15 conductor Lahav Shani piano Seong-Jin Cho Rachmaninoff Paganini Rhapsody Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet (selection) Music for Breakfast No. 4 Sun 24 March 2024 • 10.30 with Melanie Broers (violin), José Moura Nunes (viola) and colleagues from the orchestra Glazunov Orientale (from: Novelettes) Dvořák Terzetto Arensky String Quartet No. 2 (1st movement) Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence (1st movement)

Musicians Viola Anne Huser Roman Spitzer Galahad Samson Honorary José Moura Nunes Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin Kerstin Bonk Lex Prummel Janine Baller Principal Guest Francis Saunders Conductor Veronika Lénártová Tarmo Peltokoski Rosalinde Kluck León van den Berg First Violin Marieke Blankestijn, Olfje van der Klein concertmeester Cello Quirine Scheffers Hed Yaron Meyerson Emanuele Silvestri Eugene Lifschitz Saskia Otto Joanna Pachucka Arno Bons Mireille van der Wart Daniel Petrovitsch Mario Rio Rachel Browne Gé van Leeuwen Maria Dingjan Marie-José Schrijner Eelco Beinema Carla Schrijner Noëmi Bodden Pepijn Meeuws Petra Visser Yi-Ting Fang Sophia Torrenga Hadewijch Hofland Double Bass Annerien Stuker Matthew Midgley Alexandra van Ying Lai Green Beveren Jonathan Focquaert Robert Franenberg Second Violin Charlotte Potgieter Harke Wiersma Arjen Leendertz Cecilia Ziano Ricardo Neto Frank de Groot Laurens van Vliet Flute Tomoko Hara Juliette Hurel Elina Staphorsius Joséphine Olech Jun Yi Dou Bob Bruyn Flute/piccolo Eefje Habraken Beatriz Da Baião Maija Reinikainen Wim Ruitenbeek Babette van den Berg Oboe Remco de Vries Melanie Broers Karel Schoofs Lana Trimmer Anja van der Maten Chief Conductor Lahav Shani

Clarinet Julien Hervé Bruno Bonansea Clarinet/ Bass Clarinet Romke-Jan Wijmenga Bassoon Pieter Nuytten Lola Descours Marianne Prommel Bassoon/ Contrabassoon Hans Wisse Horn David Fernández Alonso Felipe Santos Freitas Silva Wendy Leliveld Richard Speetjens Laurens Otto Pierre Buizer Trumpet Alex Elia Simon Wierenga Jos Verspagen Trombone Pierre Volders Alexander Verbeek Remko de Jager Bass trombone Rommert Groenhof Tuba Hendrik-Jan Renes Percussion Danny van de Wal Ronald Ent Martijn Boom Adriaan Feyaerts

Oboe/Cor Anglais Harp Charlotte Sprenkels Ron Tijhuis